Speckled shrimp

Metapenaeus monoceros

Crustaceans
IUCN: Not evaluated

Usual depth14–46 m
Water temperature22–29 °C
Best monthsMay
How commonRare

About this species

Metapenaeus monoceros is a species of prawn in the family Penaeidae. It is also known as speckled shrimp, brown shrimp and pink shrimp in English, crevette mouchetée in French, camarón moteado in Spanish, koraney chingri or honye chingri in India, ginger prawn in South Africa and choodan chemmeen in Malayalam.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Metapenaeus monoceros”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 3 records
February: 4 records
March: 0 records
April: 10 records
May: 27 records
June: 15 records
July: 10 records
August: 2 records
September: 5 records
October: 7 records
November: 7 records
December: 4 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 14–46 m · Deepest record: 122 m

0–10 m: 6 records
10–20 m: 20 records
20–30 m: 39 records
30–40 m: 14 records
40–50 m: 3 records
50–60 m: 2 records
60–70 m: 2 records
70–80 m: 1 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 2 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 22–29 °C

20–22 °C: 45 records
22–24 °C: 76 records
24–26 °C: 7 records
26–28 °C: 30 records
28–30 °C: 3 records

Names and classification

English: Speckled shrimp, Brown Prawn, ginger prawn, speckled prawn, speckled shrimp, Speckled Shrimp

Names in 3 more languages

German: Einhorn-Geißelgarnele
Spanish: camarón moteado
French: crevette mouchetée

Other scientific names: Metapenaeus cognatus, Metapenaeus Deschampsi, Penaeopsis spinulicauda, Penaeus monoceros

Similar species

Endeavour shrimp
Metapenaeus endeavouri
bay prawn
Metapenaeus bennettae
Greasyback shrimp
Metapenaeus ensis
Kadal shrimp
Metapenaeus dobsoni
ginger shrimp
Metapenaeus kutchensis
Jinga shrimp
Metapenaeus affinis

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
483 open-data records from 1798 to 2023.
Species data updated November 4, 2026.

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